UConn women’s basketball crushes Houston, 91-51

Two days after Christyn Williams declared “it sucks to be them” following UConn women’s basketball’s loss to Baylor, the Huskies made life miserable for the Houston Cougars in an 91-51 rout. The win extends UConn’s streak of consecutive games without a back-to-back losses to 975 games dating back to 1993.

UConn’s defense suffocated Houston early, maintaining a shutout through nearly eight minutes and only allowing two points in the entire first quarter. The Huskies forced the Cougars into bad shots and outside of one possession, didn’t allow second chances.

While the defense went to work, UConn’s offense opened the game with a 16-0 run and closed the first quarter up 25-2. But with such a wide lead, the Huskies appeared to take their foot off the gas in the second quarter. UConn’s defense laid off and allowed more easy baskets while the offense shot 42 percent in the quarter, down from 67 percent in the first.

Houston matched the Huskies’ point total in the second period but after the lopsided first quarter, UConn still went into the half leading 44-21.

The Huskies came out of the break with renewed focus and scored 10-straight points to push the lead over 30. Houston wouldn’t get any closer.

With the game all but decided midway through the third quarter, Geno Auriemma rested his starters and gave the reserves some run down the stretch. Everyone on the team played at least 10 minutes while only Dangerfield and Williams reached the 30-minute mark.

Megan Walker paced UConn with 22 points on 8-12 shooting along with seven rebounds and four assists. Dangerfield had a good day too, missing just three shots in a 17-point performance. Williams continued her stretch of strong play with 21 points, five rebounds and five assists.

Against a vastly overmatched Houston team, Olivia Nelson-Ododa looked like her usual self, scoring 13 points with seven rebounds. She was a key part of UConn’s defensive success with three blocks and plenty of altered shots.

Next up, the Huskies hit the road to face Memphis on Tuesday. The game will be on SNY at 8 p.m.

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